Building a Distributed Session Storage in Go: When Your Sessions Need a Road Trip

Building a Distributed Session Storage in Go: When Your Sessions Need a Road Trip

Picture this: your user logs in, grabs a digital shopping cart, and suddenly gets routed to a different server that knows nothing about their session. It’s like trying to continue a road trip after someone swapped your car mid-journey. Let’s build a distributed session system that keeps the adventure going - no abandoned carts or logged-out users allowed! Why Sessions Go Rogue in Distributed Systems Traditional session storage has all the coordination skills of toddlers playing soccer - everyone chases the same ball....

June 16, 2025 · 4 min · 701 words · Maxim Zhirnov
The Case for Keeping Your Codebase Messy: When It’s Easier to Navigate

The Case for Keeping Your Codebase Messy: When It’s Easier to Navigate

We’ve all heard the sermons about pristine codebases. “Clean code is maintainable code!” they chant. “A place for everything and everything in its place!” they lecture. But what if I told you your codebase might be healthier with a dash of chaos? Let’s explore why sometimes controlled messiness beats architectural asceticism. Code Tetris: When Organization Fails Consider this C++ memory management snippet from a physics simulation project: int sz = 100; int* p = (int*) malloc(sizeof(int) * sz); int count = 0; // ....

June 16, 2025 · 3 min · 582 words · Maxim Zhirnov
Building a Real-Time Conferencing Platform with Go: From Zero to Hero

Building a Real-Time Conferencing Platform with Go: From Zero to Hero

Ah, video conferencing - the digital equivalent of office coffee machines where most meaningful conversations now happen. Let’s build one that doesn’t make people mutter “I think you’re on mute” every 37 seconds. We’ll create a Go-powered platform that handles video streams like a seasoned bartender handles last call. Architecture Blueprint Our digital speakeasy needs three main ingredients: graph TD A[Client Browser] -->|WebSocket| B[Go Server] B -->|Signaling| C[WebRTC Peer Connection] C --> D[Media Server] D -->|ICE Candidates| A Step 1: Setting Up the WebSocket Saloon Let’s start with the communication backbone....

June 15, 2025 · 3 min · 562 words · Maxim Zhirnov

When the Dark Side Has Better Cookies: A Pragmatist's Guide to Choosing Proprietary Databases

Let’s start with a confession: I once tried to build a nuclear reactor using IKEA furniture. While open source databases feel equally empowering (“Look ma, no license fees!”), sometimes you need that pre-assembled, warranty-backed solution that won’t leak digital uranium. Here’s why proprietary databases might be your Death Star-shaped cookie jar. The Support Saga: When 2 AM Feels Like a Horror Movie Picture this: It’s 2 AM, your database cluster is on fire, and the only “documentation” you find is a 2012 forum post that ends with “nvm, fixed it....

June 15, 2025 · 3 min · 496 words · Maxim Zhirnov

Building a Go CI/CD Pipeline in GitLab: A Developer's Survival Guide

Ah, CI/CD pipelines - the magical conveyor belts that turn our chaotic code commits into polished production artifacts. Let’s create one that would make even Go’s gopher mascot do a happy dance. I promise this won’t be another “Hello World” tutorial - we’re building a pipeline that actually does useful work while keeping your codebase healthier than a hipster’s kombucha stash. The Gopher’s Toolbelt: Prerequisites Before we start our pipeline rave, you’ll need:...

June 14, 2025 · 4 min · 680 words · Maxim Zhirnov